GO (Y)OUR OWN WAY: The U.S. is taking its own steps to try to secure the Strait of Hormuz and mitigate rising oil prices after members of the international community widely rebuffed calls from the president to send warships to the waterway.
U.S. Central Command said the military dropped multiple 5,000-pound deep-penetrator bombs Tuesday targeting "hardened" antiship missile sites along the Iranian coastline near the strait. The attacks are key as Tehran's ability to launch drones, lay sea mines and fire antiship cruise missiles have contributed to other countries' unwillingness to get involved in reopening the area to international oil shipping.
This is one of a few steps the Trump administration is taking to try to ease costs following the president's reversal on asking for assistance from the international community.
The price of gas has been steadily rising over the past few weeks since the war began, with AAA now estimating the average national price for regular gas is at its highest point since 2023.
The Treasury Department reduced some sanctions on Venezuelan oil companies Wednesday to try to boost the global oil supply, while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the administration is temporarily loosening shipping rules to address what she called "short-term disruptions."
The administration is issuing a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act, a century-old law that requires shipping between U.S. ports to be conducted by U.S.-flagged ships. Bloomberg, which first reported the move, noted the waiver could allow foreign ships to carry products such as oil, coal, gasoline and other products between U.S. ports.
Still, the impacts of these moves may be minor on gas prices while the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, The Hill's Rachel Frazin reports.
The situation may worsen if Iran follows through on a threat to attack oil and gas facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The threat came in response to an attack on Iran's South Pars natural gas field.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is weighing whether to seize Iran's oil depot on Kharg Island, off the coast of the mainland, to try to force Tehran to reopen the strait, The Hill's Ellen Mitchell reports. But doing so would require a major escalation in the form of U.S. boots on the ground, a development that has so far been avoided and may be unpopular, as polls have suggested.
▪ The Hill: Foreign leaders show new willingness to defy Trump.
▪ The Hill: Gulf states walk tightrope.
ARTFUL DODGE: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard toed a careful line as she and CIA Director John Ratcliffe dodged questions about the lead-up to the military offensive against Iran.
One of the most notable moments during their testimony before the Senate Intelligence panel came during a back-and-forth between Gabbard and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.). The senator pressed her on whether Iran posed an "imminent nuclear threat" before the U.S. launched its strikes.
Gabbard skipped over a portion of her prepared remarks in which she had planned to say Tehran's nuclear program was "obliterated" during the U.S. strikes on Iran last June and there have been "no efforts since then" to try to rebuild their enrichment capacity.
Ossoff asked if this was the intelligence community's assessment, and she replied that it was.
"The White House stated on March 1 of this year that this war was launched and was 'a military campaign to eliminate the imminent nuclear threat opposed by the Iranian regime,'" Ossoff said.
Gabbard said the president is the only person "who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat" and asserted it is not the intelligence community's responsibility to determine what is an imminent threat.
"It is precisely your responsibility to determine what constitutes a threat to the United States," Ossoff said.
Gabbard, a former Hawaii congresswoman who long promoted noninterventionist principles before joining the Trump administration, has attempted to walk a fine line on the Iran war and has not been as public-facing on the conflict as other senior leaders.
The difficulty was compounded after the resignation of her close aide and top counterterrorism official Joe Kent, who stepped down from his role in protest of the war Tuesday. Kent alleged in a letter to Trump that Iran didn't pose an imminent threat to the U.S. before the strikes began.
Intelligence chiefs have regularly weighed in on the intelligence community's assessment of threats to national security before Congress and elsewhere, making Gabbard's nonanswer that much more striking.
Other members of the administration are also wrestling with how to handle Kent's accusations.
Vice President Vance, seen by many as the presidential heir apparent to Trump in 2028, addressed Kent's resignation during a campaign-style event in Michigan on Wednesday.
"The president has said this, I've said this. Nobody likes war, and I guarantee the president of the United States is not interested in getting us in the kind of long-term quagmires that we've seen in years past," he said.
While much of Trump's base has remained behind him in supporting the war, Kent is the first major administration official to resign in protest of the conflict.
Questions remain over whether Trump's coalition can stay together or if it might start to erode on account of the war.
▪ The Hill: Gabbard fends off questions about Fulton County raid.
▪ The Washington Post: Gabbard says Iranian regime is degraded but intact.
FUNDING REQUEST: The Pentagon has asked for Trump to request more than $200 billion in funding from Congress for the war in Iran, The Washington Post reported.
A supplemental funding request for operations against Iran has been expected as the conflict has extended to a third week. But the ask from the Defense Department would significantly surpass the cost of the campaign so far, the Post noted.
Sources told the outlet some White House officials don't believe the request has a realistic chance of being approved in Congress, and the Pentagon has considered several different funding proposals in recent weeks.
Democrats seem likely to oppose an additional funding request, and GOP congressional leadership has floated the possibility of trying to advance a funding package through the reconciliation process.
FOREIGN VISIT: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is visiting Washington, D.C., Thursday at a contentious time for relations between the U.S. and its traditional allies.
Takaichi's state visit, her first to the U.S. since becoming the head of the Japanese government, will be an all-day affair, starting with a bilateral meeting and ending in a dinner.
The trip was originally supposed to be just a celebration of the long-standing friendship between the two countries, but it has taken on new significance as Trump looks for military help with Iran, The Washington Post reported.
The rapport between Trump and Takaichi got off to a strong start when he visited Tokyo in the fall, but the stakes are much higher for the meeting and the U.S.-Japanese relationship.
FED RATE DECISION: The Federal Reserve voted to keep interest rates steady amid significant economic uncertainty from the war in Iran.
The Federal Open Market Committee, which is responsible for setting the central bank's borrowing costs, voted to keep interest rates between a range of 3.5 to 3.75 percent. The vote was 11-1, with committee member Stephen Miran voting for a 0.25-point cut.
The decision did not come as a surprise given the economic turmoil facing the country and world amid the Iran conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. But the war has made the Fed's job more difficult as another factor impacting the economy, along with the pressure campaign from the president to lower rates.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday after the decision that he won't step down as the leader of the bank until a successor is confirmed and wouldn't depart the board of governors until the Trump administration concludes its criminal investigation into him and his handling of the Fed's renovations.
Though Powell's term as Fed chair ends in May, staying on as chair pro tempore until a replacement is confirmed would follow the precedent of past chairs. Trump has nominated former Fed board member Kevin Warsh to succeed him.
▪ CNBC: Fed notes 'uncertain' impacts from Iran war.
TERRORISM LINK PROBE: The FBI and IRS have reportedly launched an initiative to investigate nonprofit groups for links to domestic terrorism.
CBS News reported Bondi ordered law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to prioritize groups and individuals who belong to the anti-fascist antifa movement or are considered "extremist."
"These domestic terrorists use violence or the threat of violence to advance political and social agendas, including opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity," Bondi said in a memo.
Which groups could be targeted remains unclear. Bondi's memo came after an executive order from the president declaring antifa a domestic terrorist organization, though the movement's decentralized ideology has raised questions about what kind of legal implementation is possible.
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